Dr. Oz: 'Printing' new body organs

Q: I read that scientists can print out body parts like ears and noses on 3D printers. How long before they can make hearts, livers and kidneys? — Jason A., San Diego

A: Let’s explain how it works with ears, and then you’ll see how close we are to kidneys. Right now scientists scan and digitize the image of a whole ear; then they create a collagen base mold in the right shape, and using a bio-printer they layer a gel made of living cells into the mold. Then they wait — in three months the living cells replace the collagen and you have an ear that can be transplanted onto a child born with an ear deformity.

The new ear will grow as the child grows. It’s part of the future for reconstructive surgery.

Bioplastic windpipes (tracheas) also have been constructed with 3D bio-printers and have already saved lives. But creating replacement organs like a kidney, that’s another matter. This involves using stem cells (remember to save your children’s umbilical cord blood for future stem cell use) and is more difficult to get right.

Recently, however, researchers in Scotland developed a way to “print out” viable stem cell aggregates from what they call bio-ink (a mixture of healthy stem cells and other biomaterials).

So theoretically, after researchers create a computerized form from a 3-D CT scan of a person’s kidney, they will be able to hit the “print” button and layer after layer of stem cells and bio-tissue will stack up to form a replicate kidney. And one day, the researchers dream, they may be able to reconstruct your damaged or diseased organ in a lab, figure out how to fix it, and then apply that knowledge to your own organ, making a transplant completely unnecessary.

Q: I have type 2 diabetes, and three years ago I stopped taking Avandia because the Food and Drug Administration labeled it a heart-attack risk. Now it’s OK’d by an FDA panel. Is it safe? — Jolene P., Atlanta

A: Good question. After the drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) was approved for sale in the U.S. in 1999, there were questions about its safety. So the manufacturer asked Duke researchers to conduct the RECORD study. Unfortunately, it turned out that results of this study, made public in 2009, seemed to have been altered or misreported, so that the medication appeared safer than it was. Lawsuits followed. The FDA then had the pharma company arrange with Duke Clinical Research Institute to re-examine that data.

But in the meantime, back in 2007, our esteemed colleague Dr. Steve Nissen, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that raised an alarm. Using the pharma company’s own data, he found that Avandia raised the risk of death from heart attack by 43 percent. And a Senate committee found internal pharma company emails back to 2000 that were downplaying the drug’s risks.

Because of the public outcry, in 2010 the FDA decided that only specific doctors could prescribe Avandia. In 2012, the pharma company agreed to pay a $3 billion settlement for not providing the FDA with safety data and improperly marketing the drug. The medication that once had been prescribed to 117,000 people a year now is used by only 3,400 Americans and banned completely in Europe.

Now back to the Duke re-evaluation of the RECORD study: That’s what’s making all the news now. On June 6, 2013, 20 of 26 panelists on the FDA advisory committee, after getting the results of the new Duke review of the same old study, recommended removing or modifying restrictions on Avandia.

As Dr. Nissen pointed out after this announcement, the idea of reanalyzing an old trial is ridiculous. And it’s highly unlikely that this new review will convince doctors that they can prescribe rosiglitazone safely to most patients. Currently there are safer and more effective treatments.

Dr. Oz

Dr. Oz is a nationally syndicated columnist and TV host specializing in health.

Last modified: July 9, 2013
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